Edinburgh Medical Journal October 1924 RECENT INVESTIGATIONS ON TETANIA PARA- By Professor NOËL PATON, M.D., F.R.S., ll.d. I. Evidence that these Conditions are due to Methyl- IN 1916 a series of papers were published from this laboratory 1 indicating that tetania parathyreopriva and idiopathic tetany are of the nature of toxæmias, due to an excess of guanidin or more probably of methyl-guanidins in the blood. Since then a large amount of work has been accomplished which considerably amplifies our results, and, although further investigations are required before the pathogenesis of these conditions is completely elucidated, it seems opportune to consider the present state of our knowledge in order to get a fresh starting-point for further studies. Biedl, Boothby,3 and György 3a give references to the work done up to 1921. That the symptoms of parathyreoid tetany are due to a poison and not to mere deficiency of calcium, is proved by their disappearance upon bleeding and transfusing an amount of 0-9 per cent. NaCl solution equivalent to the blood removed, thus necessarily further diluting the calcium of the blood. The recent work of Luckhardt and Rosenblom upon the effect of transfusing calcium-free Ringer's solution in producing diuresis * I see no reason for abandoning the Galenic name of thyreoid for the modern thyroid. Oupéos is a shield, upis an opening, and the corruption of thyreoid to thyroid is probably due to the ignorance of early English anatomists. Galen calls the laryngeal cartilage, Oupeo-econs and the pelvic foramen θυροειδής. ماهما وما |